During the course of operating a motor vehicle, certain undetected and unexpected events, such as the sudden appearance of a deer or a pedestrian or the sudden deceleration of a leading motor vehicle located ahead of the primary motor vehicle, can result in situations wherein an immediate response is desired in order to avoid a collision. Recently, on-board sensors are being increasingly relied upon to provide a signal to a vehicle controller indicating the presence of objects situated within the forward path of the motor vehicle and thereby alert the driver.
Using the forward velocity of the vehicle and the measured distance to the object ahead, the motor vehicle controller may be used to calculate a Time to Contact (TTC) of the detected object. In some instances, the calculated TTC may be insufficient for the motor vehicle braking system to bring the motor vehicle to a stop in the present lane. In such driving circumstances, one solution has been for the driver, or motor vehicle controller-operated steering system if so equipped, to create an abrupt steering input and thereby attempt to steer around the object located within the forward path of the motor vehicle. Since such abrupt steering maneuvers tend to cause the motor vehicle to veer outside of its present lane, such maneuvers are undesirable. Hence, a solution that addresses this concern would be advantageous.
The solution disclosed herein is a system and method of increasing the effective TTC with a detected object. In combination with the application of an assisted steering capability, disclosed herein is a system and method that induces a lateral steering input with or without driver input into the motor vehicle steering. The lateral steering input can be an oscillating side-to-side steering input expressed as a maximization of lateral steering as, for example, a sine wave modulated within a defined range of frequencies and amplitudes, thereby reducing the linear distance in the lane traveled by the motor vehicle relative to a predetermined path in the lane.
Thus, the solution presented by the present system and method increasing the effective TTC for a motor vehicle body is a relatively low-cost solution that improves the ability of bringing a motor vehicle to a stop in an effective shorter distance.